White House ‘outs’ CIA station chief by mistake

WASHINGTON: The White House accidentally revealed the name of the CIA station chief in Afghanistan during President Barack Obama’s surprise visit to the country on Sunday.The top agent’s name was revealed in a pool report sent out by a Washington Post reporter to journalists based on a list of officials provided by the White House who were taking part in a security briefing for Obama at Bagram Air Base. The pool report is an eyewitness account of the president’s activities written by a pool reporter on behalf of his colleagues that is sent out by the White House to thousands of journalists. When the reporter realised what had happened, he notified senior White House officials and they provided a new list of officials for the pool report that was missing the name of the man revealed as “chief of station” in the earlier report.